Patriots Mike Vrabel Could Become First Coach In Over 20 Years To Accomplish Rare Feat

The New England Patriots are headed to the Super Bowl, and Mike Vrabel has a chance to make plenty of history.

If the Patriots win the Super Bowl, Vrabel will become the first person to win a Super Bowl as a player and coach for the same franchise. However, that is not the only feat that could be on the line.

Vrabel is the current favorite to win the Associated Press Coach of the Year Award, and if he wins that award and the Super Bowl, he will be the first coach since Bill Belichick in 2003 to win both in the same season, according to ESPN.

Vrabel has already won the Professional Football Writers of America Coach of the Year Award. However, the Associated Press Award will be handed out a few days before the Super Bowl.

Vrabel was the favorite in the closing odds at -400, and Mike MacDonald was in second place at +450.

Only seven times since 1966, when the first Super Bowl was played, has a coach been named Coach of the Year and won the Super Bowl. Before Belichick in 2003, the last instance came in 1999, when Dick Vermeil led the St. Louis Rams to a championship.

Don Shula, Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs, Mike Ditka, Bill Parcells, Vermeil and Belichick are the only coaches to ever win Coach of the Year and the Super Bowl in the same season.

Vrabel’s hire has already proven to be a success. This will be the Patriots’ first Super Bowl appearance since the 2018 season. Its is the Patriots’ 12th overall Super Bowl appearance. It is just the third time in franchise history that they will play in a Super Bowl without Tom Brady and Belichick.